Have you ever picked up a romance and found it way spicier or way tamer than you expected? That’s exactly why I think spice ratings matter. Plenty of you have told me you appreciate that I include them in my reviews, so I wanted to explain how my scale works. That way you never have to guess.
Spice ratings are subjective, as always, but I’ve tried to add a little rigor. Every rating comes down to three questions:
How much intimacy is there? This is the frequency of intimate scenes.
How descriptive are those scenes? Is the language vivid or raunchy, and does the book describe the specific acts in detail?
How much kink is there?
Here’s how that plays out from 0 to 5 chili peppers.
🌶️ 0 Chili Peppers: Fade to Black / Closed Door
Either there are no intimate scenes at all, or the book fades completely to black. There’s no actual sex on the page and no mention of intimate acts whatsoever.
Persuasion by Jane Austen
🌶️ 1 Chili Pepper: Barely There
Intimacy is minimal, maybe a single scene, so it isn’t frequent. It also isn’t very descriptive, and it won’t use vulgar or vivid language for body parts or acts. It’s not fully closed door, but it’s far from open door. It won’t fade to black, but you won’t get much detail about the acts themselves.
🌶️🌶️ 2 Chili Peppers: Warming Up
Most of my books fall in the 2 to 3 chili pepper range, and my average rating is probably around 2.5. At 2 peppers you’ll find a few intimate scenes throughout the book, and you’ll get some description. You won’t get a lot of kink, a high quantity of scenes, or a high level of detail.
A 2.5 leans a bit more toward frequency (more scenes) or a bit more description. The language is still basic sexual and anatomical terms rather than anything raunchy or vulgar. It stays pretty vanilla and avoids anything I’d consider taboo, whether that’s kink or more aggressive types of sexual acts. The intimate scenes are part of the book, but they’re not a main part of it.
🌶️🌶️🌶️ 3 Chili Peppers: Spicy
This is what I’d call a properly spicy romance. Expect multiple on-page scenes, and either very descriptive scenes or a high quantity of them. There might be some explicit language, more detail about what the characters are actually doing, and some terms I’d call raunchy for lack of a better word.
Intimacy is also a big part of the story and the relationship here. But we still haven’t reached a high level of kink. You probably won’t find anal play or anything super adventurous or out there.
🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ 4 Chili Peppers: Very, Very Spicy
This tier is very spicy. I don’t love calling it erotica, because plenty of 4-pepper books still have a substantive plot and real character development. Erotica is typically thought of as spice-centric rather than plot-centric, and that’s not how I see all of these books. Think authors like Kate Stewart and Penelope Douglas.
You’ll get lots of intimate scenes, and they’ll be very descriptive. They’ll likely use vivid, vulgar, or raunchy language for the acts and anatomy. This is also where you start to get into more kink, like anal play, knife play, or primal play.
🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ 5 Chili Peppers: Fire Alarm Spice
Spice is a huge part of the book. You get all the kink and all the descriptiveness, and it’s very frequent throughout. Think Credence: very taboo, very intimate, very out there, and a massive part of the plot and story. I’ve only rated a few books 5 chili peppers.
Where to Find My Spice Ratings
I try to include spice ratings in all of my blog post Book Reviews, Goodreads reviews, and I include them in videos too whenever I reference my ratings on screen. If you ever have a question about a rating, send me a message or email! I’m happy to help. :)
